Louis XV's Paris. Turgot's celebrated plan of Paris during the reign of Louis XV - a fine, fresh copy attractively bound in full morocco.

Michel-Etienne Turgot (1690-1751), Louis XV's Prévot des Marchands, commissioned this plan in 1734 from Louis Bretez, a sculptor, painter and perspective specialist, who used the conventional bird's-eye representation (isometric projection). The stunning result shows maps with great and decorative details, being an important record of the architecture and gardens of Baroque Paris, the world capital at the time. This was the last major example of this type of plan.

Michel-Etienne Turgot was chief of the municipality of Paris as provost of merchants (the equivalent of today's mayor). He is the father of the famous economist and statesman Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, which history has remembered as an early advocate for economic liberalism. What motivated Michel-Etienne Turgot to commission a map of Paris was his will to promulgate the reputation of the city for Parisian, provincial or foreign elites. That is why he asked Louis Bretez (c. 16.. - Paris, 1736), a French architect, cartographer and professor of perspective who belonged to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, to draw up the plan of Paris and its suburbs. Over his two years of work (1734-1736), Bretez was granted access to all the houses and gardens he needed to visit in order to take the relevant measurements.

The 21 sheets of the plan were created in 1736 by Claude Lucas, engraver of the Royal Academy of Sciences. The plan was published in 1739, and the prints were bound in volumes offered to the King, the members of the Academy and the Municipality. Additional copies were kept to be used as representations of France to foreigners. The 21 engraved brass plates are held by the Chalcography of the Louvre, where they are still used for re-printing based on the same techniques as almost three centuries ago.

Folio (56.4 x 45.4 cm). Folding overview map, 20 double-page maps engraved by Claude Lucas after Bretez including 1-16 numbered in the plate, plates 18 and 19 joined and folded. Contemporary red morocco gilt, covers with gilt borders, gilt arms of Paris to covers, fleur-de-lys to corners, spine in ten compartments, gilt lettered direct in second, others with fleur-de-lys tooling, raised bands, a very attractive example.

Millard 39.